“The great guru,
Mahasaya, taught his disciples to ‘Solve all your problems through meditations. Exchange unprofitable speculations for actual God-communion. Wisdom is not assimilated with the eyes, but with the atoms. When your conviction of a truth is not merely in your brain but in your being, you may diffidently (unassertively) vouch for its meaning.
Clear your mind of dogmatic theological debris; let in the fresh, healing waters of direct perception. Attune yourself to the active inner Guidance; the Divine Voice has the answer to every dilemma of life. Though man’s ingenuity for getting himself into trouble appears to be endless, the Infinite Source is no less resourceful.‘
Shankara in his famous Century of Verses wrote, ‘Realized knowledge alone destroys ignorance. Knowledge cannot spring up by any other means than inquiry. Who am I? How was this universe born? Who is its maker? What is the material cause? This is the kind of inquiry referred to.’ The intellect has no answer for these questions; hence ancient Indian seers, known as rishis, evolved Vedic yoga thousands of years ago as their technique of spiritual inquiry through deep meditation, breath control, and inner spiritual exploration.
‘All spiritual truth has to be experienced within yourself in order to be real; otherwise it is merely intellectual knowledge. And if you would make the effort to have that realization, you would know that truth is more than belief or speculation. It must come as unshakeable intuitive perception to every individual,’ Paramahansa Yogananda authored in his book, Solving the Mystery of Life.
The Greek ideal echoed in Western philosophies is ‘Man, know thyself.’
The dictum of Descartes: ‘I think, therefore I am,’ is not philosophically valid. The reasoning facilities cannot shed light on man’s ultimate Being. The human mind, like the phenomenal world that it cognizes, is in perpetual flux and can yield no finalities. Intellectual satisfaction is not the highest goal. The seeker of God is the real lover of vidya, unchangeable truth, all else is avidya, relative knowledge.
Charles P. Steinmetz, the great electrical engineer, was asked, ‘What line of research will see the greatest development during the next fifty years?’ He answered, ‘I think the greatest discovery will be made along spiritual lines,‘ Steinmetz replied. ‘Here is a force which history clearly teaches has been the greatest power in the development of men. Yet we have been merely playing with it and have never seriously studied it as we have the physical forces.
Someday people will learn that material things do not bring happiness and are of little use in making men and women creative and powerful. Then the scientists of the world will turn their laboratories over to the study of God and prayer and the spiritual forces which as yet have hardly been scratched. When this day comes, the world will see more advancement in one generation than it has seen in the past four.”
Autobiography Of A Yogi – Paramahansa Yogananda, Paramahansa Yogananda, pgs. 272, 362, 410, 495.